Bach vocal. Ein Handbuch

In his handbook Bach vocal. Ein Handbuch, the renowned Bach scholar Christoph Wolff has compiled the basic information on all of Johann Sebastian Bach’s vocal works in a compact, clear form. Alongside titles, date of composition, librettists, and scoring, for each individual movement the scoring, text incipit, and meter are given. Different versions have been evaluated, as well as the relationships of the works to each other (the parody models).

All groups of works and genres are presented in a systematic classification: as well as the church cantatas, oratorios, Passions, motets, and the Latin church music, the catalog also includes the secular cantatas and related works which are interrelated with the sacred works in many ways. Introductory chapters for each genre place it in its music-historical and biographical context.

The available relevant new editions for each work and each version are listed. In addition, the many indices included make this handbook an indispensable reference work.